Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story is returning for Season 13, and will star Ariana Grande, Emma Roberts, Kathy Bates, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Angela Bassett, Billie Lourd, Gabourey Sidibe, Leslie Grossman and the return of Jessica Lange. Season 13 is set to premiere Halloween 2026.

Producer and series creator Murphy announced the casting for Season 13 in an Instagram post which featured a teaser video with the stars’ names set to a cover of Billie Holiday’s “I’ll Be Seeing You,” and a quote in the teaser which read: ”Surprise, b*tch. I bet you thought you’d seen the last of me.”

The cast announced for Season 13 are all actors who have worked in the Ryan Murphy universe before. Grande, Roberts and Lourd previously worked with Murphy on Scream Queens, while Roberts starred in American Horror Story: Coven, and AHS: Delicate. She also appeared in AHS seasons Freak Show, Cult, Apocalypse, and 1984.

Peters and Paulson have played different characters in AHS, dating back to the original season, Murder House. They also both returned for Asylum, Coven, Freak Show, Hotel, Roanoke, Cult, Apocalypse, and Double Feature.

Angela Bassett, co-producer of 9-1-1 with Murphy, joined the anthology series in Coven, and returned for Freak Show, Hotel, Roanoke, and Apocalypse.

Lange has a long history with the American Horror Story franchise as part of the inaugural season in 2011, Murder House.  Her surprise return to AHS comes after she said earlier this year she would not return to the franchise. While appearing at the Glasgow Film Festival for the premiere of Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Irish radio station SPIN 1038 asked Lange if she would be returning to the horror series. “Oh Christ, no,” Lange said. “I mean, I haven’t done it for more than 10 years, 12 years, so, no, I’m not doing it.”

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